The Press., 1887-12-01
(N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 90th.) SOMEWHAT STIFF IN HIS MANNER.

What Jonathan R. Bass wants to go on living for is more than anybody can find out He has not been out of bed for thir. ty years, and the prospects are that he will only get out when the undertaken re- moves him. There is a strong probability, however, if he should live much longer and keep up the shrinking process that is now going on, that even an undertaken will not be able 10 find anything to take away.
 Jonathans history is a peculiar one. He was born in Lockport, N r., in 1890, and for the first few years of his life was strong and healthy. He could run, jump and Nrestle better than any boys in his neighborhood, and had an appetite that made his mother rejoice that he was the last of his race. When about seventeen years old he stepped on sharp stone and the skin on his right foot was slightly abraded. Immediately sensations that re- sembled tho shock from an electric current passed up and down his leg. This peculiar sensation was followed by about four months of severe agony. The pain then suddenly left him and gave way to more startling symptoms. His skin became cold and as white as marble His flesh seemed to melt away from his bones.
 As he grew thinner his appetite increas- cd and he could eat as much as four mon. His toes became as hard as iron, stuck to- gether as if glued, and could not be moved. The knee joints and then the hips gradu- ally became so firmly set together that motion was impossible. Jonathan's s health remained good all the time, while his flesh seemed to shrivel up and be absorbed into bone. The justification next appeared in the hands and passed up the arms, locking the joints firmly together. Then it passed downward to the ribs, SO that they seemed like cylinder of corrugated sheet iron. The spine was next attacked, and became as stiff as a ramrod, and all motion from the hips in any direction was absolutely suspended. The head was the last affect ed, but finally the jaws became locked as if in tetanus. This made the whole body one solid bone, with the exception of the abdomen, the walls of which became SO thin that the movements of the intestines could be plainly seen through it. The completed justification took about nine years to form, leaving Jonathan entirely helpless. He went to bed and has not got up yet. This was over thirty years ago.
 He was discovered by "freak" hunter and brought to this city on Monday, and is now in one of the Bowery museums. A Tribune reporter saw him last evening. He was in bed, as usual. He is never moved out of bed, even in travelling, as there is danger in moving him around that he might break into pieces with many in- convenient consequences. He became blind eighteen years ago and weighs sixty seven pounds. The reporter took him by the back of the head and raised him in the bed. He came up on his heels without a bend anywhere. A peculiar phase of the disease, as it is advancing now, is that the extremities are becoming soft. The nails on his left hand are about ten inches long and twisted like corkscrew.
 Jonathan said that he was without pain, but when the reporter tried to raise his leg quickly, he said that he thought it had snapped off at the hip. His appetite is as good as ever. His front teeth have been knocked out so that food can be passed through. He likes solid food cut fine, and after rolling it around on his tongue he swallows it. He cannot chew. He has not opened his mouth in fifteen years. Jonathan likes glass of good whiskey, and when he gets little too much he feels like fighting. He never hits any one. He says he wants to make money to buy a farm.